Love of Dog — Saved by a Ladybug
We dearly loved our bloodhound fur child Katie, who was our heart girl and a therapy dog as well. We were devastated when cancer took her.
My husband, Charlie, died five months later. He broke his ankle in Mammoth Lakes and we were flown to Reno when an operable heart condition was discovered. Charlie got COVID in the hospital and then came back to Eureka by ambulance to a skilled nursing facility.
One of Katie’s jobs was being a hospice dog, so I knew some folks recover; I was convinced that being in hospice care in the comfort of our home, Charlie would recover. But the day before he was to come home, I received a call that he had stopped breathing. I believe he died peacefully in his sleep knowing he was coming home and that a new bloodhound puppy was in our future.
Having lost first Katie and then Charlie, my grief was overwhelming. Recently, the thought came to me that perhaps Katie died first so she could welcome Charlie at the Rainbow Bridge.
It took a year after Charlie’s death for Ladybug finally to come into my life. Friends near Niagara Falls bred both Katie and Ladybug. Each litter has a theme, and Katie had been part of the “Fruits” litter, so we named her Wychway’s Strawberry Fields Forever Katie. The new litter’s theme was the “Bugs,” so I reserved the name Ladybug because that’s what my dad had called me.
As I awaited my puppy, I decided to name her Wychway-Crown’s Ladybug Sings the Blues, honoring my dad and Charlie, as Charlie taught film history and theatre. Three days after the litter was born, puppies started dying of sepsis, but antibiotics saved eight puppies, including my girl and her mom.
I just celebrated my 80th birthday, so Ladybug and I planned a trip to the Benbow Inn, where Charlie and I had celebrated in the past.
As I was packing, I had a little container of Charlie’s ashes — whenever I take a trip, some of Charlie’s ashes go with me. Imagine my astonishment when Ladybug took the little container of ashes and opened it up and sprinkled his ashes in her yard!
I believe that if you’re open to magic, it happens, and I believe that was magic. I’m so fortunate to have this incredibly wonderful Ladybug in my life, who truly has saved me. I have so wished Charlie and Ladybug could meet.
Claudia Myers and Ladybug live in McKinleyville.
